While referencing multiple shows and films, the main reference to The Scary Door is the classic TV series The Twilight Zone, famous for its dramatic stories with big twists by the end, often revealing that everything was entirely the other way around of what one would have expected, or introducing extreme irony; for example in Time Enough At Last, a man who loves reading enjoys the fact that he is the sole survivor of human race as he finally gets time to read - but then he breaks his glasses.

Most obviously, the opening sequence to the two are very similar: the camera drifts through space, with several strange objects flying around, with a host (originally Rod Serling) introducing the viewer to the strange area of The Twilight Zone (or in Futurama's version, one enters The Scary Door).

While some episodes clearly are references to specific episodes of The Twilight Zone (for example Last Man on Earth, which has almost the exact story as Time Enough At Last but takes it a bit further in irony), others are less specific. The Gambler has multiple references to episodes of The Twilight Zone, as well as a lot of original scenes. Others, such as The Most Evil Creature of Them All, are not specific references to episodes but rather mockery of the show overall, which sometimes is extremely overdramatic and always have a twist. The soundtrack is also very similar, including the dramatic twist music in every episode.

Announcer: You are entering the vicinity of an area adjacent to a location. The kind of place where there might be a monster, or some kind of weird mirror. These are just examples; it could also be something much better. Prepare to enter: The Scary Door.

[Scene: In a desolated world, a man with glasses walks through a library that was somehow spared from destruction.]

Announcer: As per your request, please find enclosed the last man on Earth.

Announcer: You're on a scenic route through a state recreational area known as the human mind. You ask a passer-by for directions, only to find he has no face or something. Suddenly up ahead, a door in the road. You swerve, narrowly avoiding The Scary Door.

[Scene: A scientist is in a Frankensteinesque laboratory mixing chemicals in a beaker.]

Scientist: I have combined the DNA of the world's most evil animals to make the most evil creature of them all.

[A pod reminiscent of the ones from the movie "The Fly" opens with a cloud of steam. It clears, revealing a naked human male.]

Announcer: Imagine, if you will, an announcer you can barely understand. He refers to a [mutters], but you're not quite sure what he said. He seems to be eating something, or perhaps he's a little drunk. It's remotely possible that he just said something about the Scary Door.

[Scene: A farm. Suddenly, it is attacked by UFOs shooting at everything in sight. Military forces are there, firing at the UFOs.]

Private: It's all over! Our guns and bombs are useless against the aliens.

Farmer: The saucers! They's a-crashin'!

[The UFOs starts to crash.]

Announcer: In the end, it was not guns or bombs that defeated the aliens, but that humblest of all God's creatures, the Tyrannosaurus Rex.

[A Tyrannosaurus Rex is seen crashing a UFO and eating the alien inside.]

Announcer: You're taking a vacation from normality. The setting: a weird motel where the bed is stained with mystery. And there's also some mystery floating in the pool. Your key card may not open the exercise room because someone smeared mystery on the lock. But it will open the Scary Door.

The Scary Door narrator: Enclosed is a .pdf attachment, a picture of yourself in a boat on a river. It's a river that flows in two directions. Make that three. It's a magic river. That's how. It is flowing down the eerie canal to... The Scary Door. That's eerie with two Es. [C.U.: On TV, a scientist's laboratory. The scientist finishes welding a Robot.] Consider, if you have the energy, Dr. Daniel Zenus, an inventor with a terminal case of the lazies.

Dr. Daniel Zenus: This Robot will do everything for me! Robot, activate yourself and do my research.

[The Robot flips its own on switch and powers up. It begins tinkering with test tubes as the scientist leans back in a chair with a pillow.]

Dr. Daniel Zenus: Ah!

[Cut to: Later.]

Dr. Daniel Zenus: Next, assume my social obligations.

[The scientist kicks back in an armchair as the Robot, wearing a black tie, offers his arm to the scientist's wife. She takes it and they exit. We see a clock. The hands spin. Years later, the scientist, now older, is still kicking back as an official enters.]

Official: Dr. Zenus, for a lifetime of scientific achievement, we present this award to... Your Robot!

[The official gives the Robot the trophy. A boy enters.]

Boy: Daddy, I love you!

[The boy turns away from the scientist and hugs the Robot.]

Dr. Daniel Zenus: If only I'd programmed the Robot to be more careful what I wished for! Robot, experience this tragic irony for me!